Today's dogs are all descended from a pack of wolves tamed 16,000 years ago on the shores of the Yangtze river, according to new research.

It was previously known that the birthplace of the dog was eastern Asia but historians were not able to be more precise than that.

However, now researchers have made a number of new discoveries about the history of man's best friend - including that the dog appeared about 16,000 years ago south of the Yangtze river in China.

It has also been discovered that even though the dog has a single geographical origin it descends from a "large number of animals - at least several hundred tamed wolves, probable even more"...

Peter Savolainen, a biology researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and who led the study with a team of Chinese researches, said: "For the first time in world history it is possible to provide a detailed picture of the dog, with its birthplace, point in time, and how many wolves were tamed.

"This is a considerably more specific date and birthplace than had previously been put forward.

"Our earlier findings from 2002 have not been fully accepted, but with our new data there will be greater acceptance.

Two problems with claiming China as the origin of dogs. First China was colonized rather late into the neolithic well after the domestication of dogs. Second, just because the wolf pack (Canis lupus chanco) is found in China now doesn’t mean they didn’t migrate there from somewhere else.

Case in point, Yellowstone Park where the present wolves are no relation to the previous ones and are in fact a different subspecies than those wolves.

The most recent common ancestor of all humanity lived just a few thousand years ago, according to a computer model of our family tree. Researchers have calculated that the mystery person, from whom everyone alive today is directly descended, probably lived around 1,500 BC in eastern Asia. [Human populations are tightly interwoven]

Neither of these is proved, and this one I'm quoting here isn't even plausible.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

Still living Wild in the bottom land swamps and forests of the Southeastern United States.

Genetic (mitochondrial DNA) testing being performed at the University of South Carolina, College of Science and Mathematics, indicates that these dogs, related to the earliest domesticated dogs, are the remnant descendants of the feral pariah canids who came across the Bering land mass 8,000 to 11,000 years ago as hunting companions to the ancestors of the Native Americans.

My dog is so clever that he scored a couple of dog bones from the bank today, and he didnt even go there! His reputation precedes him!

My new pup (Ozzie Shep.) is a terrible mooch and plays up the puppy dog eyes thing... One time to the drive up window, and I had to bring him in for all the girls to cuddle... Ever since, there is a handful of biscuits for Chewy every time. Such a player, he is... :D

33
posted on 09/04/2009 4:42:51 PM PDT
by roamer_1
(It takes a (Kenyan) village to raise an idiot.)

My mom’s chihuahua was always given treats when he was driven through the drive-through lane, too-only the tellers would always ask,”Is that a dog?” first. Way to crush a chihuahua’s pride and dignity !

:’) I’d send a link in FReepmail, but it *may* be too offensive... there’s some mighty sick stuff out there on the web, and I found this one while looking for something I vaguely remembered, probably for one of the lists around here; and when I saw it, I almost choked to death laughing at it, even while I was recoiling from it.

There MUST be more to this story. Taming one wolf would be extremely arduous, and time consuming. They would have had to be kept separate from each other. “A pack” of “several hundred” is wildly improbable.

A pack of a few feral dogs just killed two people, here in America. “Several hundred” semi-domesticated wolves?

40
posted on 09/04/2009 11:35:51 PM PDT
by DoorGunner
("...and so, all Israel will be saved")

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.